1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to document management apparatuses and document management systems, and more particularly, to collection of document browsing history.
2. Description of the Related Art
Delivering a document in electronic form over a network to a delivery destination, where the document is browsed using an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer (PC) has already been performed. In such document delivery, document information in an information format that can be browsed using a general information processing apparatus or document information in a system-specific information format is transmitted using an electronic mail, a file transfer protocol, or the like. At an information processing apparatus, which is a transmission destination, the document is browsed by a browsing method that suits the information format.
When a document is browsed using a projector or the like device that does not include a Large-capacity storage device, information (hereinafter, “display information”) in HyperText Merkup Language (HTML) format or the like for displaying the document is transmitted over HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP). The projector or the like device, which has HTTP browsing function, displays the document according to the received HTML-format display information.
Besides, systems that make it possible to collect document browsing history in order to keep track of responses of browsing users by collecting and analyzing browsing activities performed on a document have been proposed (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-27013). According to a technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-27013, document elements that have become a subject of browsing in document browsing are detected to thereby achieve keeping track of responses of browsing users.
However, the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-27013 is on a premise that detection as to whether a delivered document is browsed and detection of browsed positions are performed by a browsing device for use by a browsing user of the document. Accordingly, as described above, in a situation where document information in a general-purpose information format is delivered and the document is then browsed with a general-purpose information processing apparatus or a situation where display information is received and displayed by a display device, such as a projector, it is difficult to even determine whether the delivered document is browsed, let alone keep track of response of a browsing user.
There is a need to solve a disadvantage such as that described above and to aim at enabling to keep track of browsing activities performed on a delivered document even in a situation where the document is browsed using a device that does not have a function of collecting document browsing history.